Many sports stadiums offer individual stadium seats instead of bench seats for fan seating. A conventional stadium seat has a stationary seat back and a folding seat pivotally attached to the seat back. The seat pivots up against the seat back to a raised position when not in use to provide additional aisle space.
The seat is made of a hard rigid material such as molded plastic, wood, or metal, and seats for outdoor use are typically not padded or cushioned. Many fans find such hard stadium seats to be uncomfortable and so place seat cushions over the seats. A seat cushion, however, will often slide off the seat when the seat rises up when the fan stands or leaves the seat temporarily during the game. The fan returns to a soiled or dirty cushion.
Lombardo U.S. Pat. No. 6,588,840 discloses a seat cushion that has a flap extending from one end of the cushion. The flap folds and extends over one side of the seat cushion, defining a gap between the flap and the one side of the seat cushion. Adjustable straps extend from the flap to the seat cushion and define the size of the gap and prevent the flap from falling away from the seat cushion. The pocket receives an end of the stadium seat and prevents the cushion from falling off the seat when the seat is raised.
Although the Lombardo cushion is useful for individual seats or for the ends of bench seats, it cannot be used with interior seating positions along the bench seat. And the construction of some individual seats causes difficulty in extending or fitting straps between the relatively tight spacing between the seat and the sides of the seat that support the arm rests.
Some fans use portable stadium seats rather than seat cushions to improve the comfort of uncushioned stadium seats. A portable stadium seat includes its own cushioned seat and a seat back. The portable seat may prevent the seat from rising when the fan is not seated, but the seat can then obstruct the aisle. A portable seat is also awkward to transport to the stadium, and is also awkward to carry within the stadium where walkways are crowded and space is limited. Portable stadium seats are often not usable with bench seats, limiting their use to only seats with seat backs.
Keltner, U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,987 discloses a seat cushion having a strap that extends around the seat to hold the seat cushion in place on the seat. The Keltner cushion can be used on both individual stadium seats and on bench seats. As previously discussed, however, straps can be difficult to use with some individual stadium seats due to the tight fit between seat components.
Thus there is a need for an improved seat cushion for use both with individual stadium seats and all seating positions of bench seats. The improved seat cushion should not fall off the seat when the seat is not in use, and should be easy to transport to the stadium and to carry within the stadium. The improved seat cushion should also be attachable to individual stadium seats without using straps.